This evening, Lucy Allan MP attended the campaign launch of SOPW at St. George’s cricket club, launched by Telford mobility rights campaigner, John McIntear. The launch was the culmination of many months of hard work by John to promote greater access to sports officiating for mobility impaired people, utilising powered wheelchairs. Lucy has been a strong supporter of John’s campaign in the parliament.
To this end, Lucy secured a debate in Westminster Hall to discuss John’s campaign and explore the options to promote greater accessibility across UK sports and at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Lucy has also written to the Chair of Sport England and continued to liaise with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston MP has been strongly supportive of John’s campaign and has confirmed to Lucy that following her writing and debate, the Birmingham 2022 Organising Committee is working with sport governing bodies to identify how best to support mobility impaired people to officiate.
This shows the value of grassroots campaigning like John’s and the value of SOPW as an organisation that can create opportunities for people to follow their passions to officiate sport. Lucy is looking forward to seeing how John’s campaign develops in the future.
Lucy Allan MP said:
"John's launch was such a successful event and it is inspiring how driven and committed John is to helping mobility impaired people officiate sports.
It was also so lovely to see Shropshire cricketers coming together to support his initiative, and I look forward to seeing John's campaign develop further."
You can read more about Lucy’s debate in parliament here.
